Faith in People
by Priestess Mayumi
Summary: Post-movie. Shifu, Tai Lung, and a young girl named Di Guang no longer trust anyone. They've become bitter and shut out. Is there any way that they'll ever be able to put their lives back together...and be in the same room without killing each other?
1. Chapter 1

Faith in People

Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable characters, settings, instances, etc. They come from DreamWorks's (aka the guy fishing on the moon Inc.) Kung Fu Panda (one of my FAVORITE animated movies!!!). I'm not making any money off of this…I don't need to either since I sell biological weapons (just kidding). All other elements (char., sett., inst.) are the products of yours truly. Please do not use without permission.

What else? Um, oh yeah! Please comment! No flames unless your name is Roy Mustang (if you watch FMA, you'll know what I'm talking about ;-)

Chapter One:

"Di Guang. Please pass me that bowl. Di? Di!" Jin Hua shouted toward the figure sulking in the darkened corner of the room.

Turning listlessly toward the other girl, Di Guang slowly moved to grab the tonic brewing over the fireplace. She half passed, half tossed the brew to Jin Hua, which Jin Hua struggled to catch before it fell onto the floor. Jin Hua sighed heavily. Di Guang's behavior had been…less than considerate lately. It hurt Jin Hua to see her sister like that, but Di Guang refused all of Jin's help and concern; she shut it out like a heavy stone door shuts out a frozen draft.

Turning her attention back to the poor, sick pig who was lying on the bed groaning, Jin Hua cupped the precious bowl of tonic in her hands. Leaning toward the sick man, she gently coaxed the warm broth down his throat. She heard him swallow, at first reluctant, but then satisfied. Jin smiled. Her mother had sworn by this recipe.

Gulping the remainder of the liquid down, the villager smiled and rasped out, "T-thank you, Lady Jin Hua."

Jin Hua smiled, although she must have told the villagers a thousand times not to call her, "lady". It made her feel like they didn't regard her as a normal being. Di Guang, however, seemed to prefer it. Before Jin could get out a response to the pig's gratitude, the wooden door of the small home swung open with a tremendous noise. It had been thrown open by a young, frazzled girl.

"Dian!" Jin Hua turned to face the trembling child. Dian was a good girl who loved to learn. Now, the poor girl was shaking fearfully. "Whatever is the matter?"

"Lady Jin Hua! Out…" Dian paused as she panted heavily. "Out…by the river. There's…there's a man in the river, Lady…"

Jin Hua didn't allow little Dian to finish the sentence. She had an automatic reflex for emergency response. Leaping to her feet, Jin shoved open the door and out into the twilight. The almost-silent footsteps behind her told her that Di Guang was right behind her.

Rushing into the rushes behind their small home, the sisters ran through the damp plants toward the river, the boundary of their small town. It was small enough to see across, but deep enough to be dangerous. Jin and Di had pulled groups of villagers out of the river every flood season. That's what the problem…it was well past flood season. Whoever was in danger in the relevantly low stream would have to be horribly injured.

Running down through the bank, Jin Hua felt the warm mud squish under her toes. She preferred to go barefoot. It was easier for her in her daily activities that way. Slipping the rest of the way down to the river bed, Jin Hua frantically stared into the river. She was afraid that the poor soul was already drowned.

It was a relief to see a person floating _face-up_ in the river. That at least gave them a fighting chance to save him. Jin Hua reached around her waist and tore off the sash holding her kimono in place and jumped into the cool river. The water swished through her hair and the sleeves of her dress. Stroking through the water, she reached the body and put her arms around it, supporting it under the neck and back, incase there were any broken or sprained bones. She swam carefully, struggling to keep them both above water.

Finally back to the shore, Jin Hua pulled the man onto the bank next to her. She heard the sound of someone's knees falling to the ground next to her. Di Guang put a hand on her sister's shoulder and gave her an "are you okay?" stare. Smiling faintly, Jin Hua nodded toward her sibling.

Refocusing, Di Guang turned away and faced the body next to them on the ground. Putting two fingers to the side of the throat, Di Guang checked for a pulse. And waited. Then, she moved her hand over his mouth. That was a good sign. At least he still had a pulse, or else Di Guang wouldn't have even bothered to check for breath. She saw Di shake her head. _Oh no._ They weren't breathing. Although Jin couldn't see it, she knew that Di Guang was rolling her eyes.

Bending down, Di Guang opened the man's mouth and breathed into his mouth from her own lungs. Once the breath was completed, Di pressed her hands under the ribcage and gave several vigerous thumps. Failing again to feel any breath from the other pair of lungs, Di Guang repeated the process. The third time, Jin Hua was convinced that they had lost the person's life, but as Di thumped for the last time, the lungs reacted, expelling large amounts of water from the mouth.

Di Guang backed up cautiously as the breathing resumed, frenetically at first, but then starting to level out. Seeing that the crises had been averted, Jin Hua turned to the other girl, who has disgustedly wiping away moisture from her mouth, and shouted, "Di! Go! Go for help!"

Di Guang didn't waste a moment. She was a bit impatient, and speed was the key for her in any situation. Jin Hua heard her steps pound away into the rushes and turned to look at the victim.

She immediately stiffened in shock. A snow leopard! A snow leopard? She could not remember having seen any snow leopard but Di Guang before. The male leopard lay panting for breath on the ground. Thank goodness they had gotten to him when they had!

He was middle-aged…late thirties she approximated. His fur was in an unsightly disarray and his violet pants were torn and tattered. That wasn't all. They were stained in blood.

Shocked, Jin Hua quickly ripped off the bottom of the pants, trying to find the injury. Luckily, the blood must have been from a former wound, because there was no open injury, although the back of his legs were covered with horrible black, green, and iris purple bruises.

As she looked him over further, she noticed thick scars of gashes across his shoulders and several cuts up and down his arms and chest. But that wasn't the worst of it. That's when she saw…

She gasped in horror. Rolling the body over onto its side, her eyes spotted horrible, splotchy burns down the entire left side of his body. Continuing to roll it over, her repulsion increased as she saw the other side as horribly disfigured as the first. It took a moment for her to realize that it wasn't just the fur that had been singed off. Almost the _entire_ skin on this man's back had been terribly _burned off_.

"Oh!" Jin Hua screeched to no one in particular. "How could such a…who would…what _happened_?"


	2. Chapter 2

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Thanks to everyone who read and/or commented!

Sorry that it's taken me a while to update. I went on a trip to Portland and then I had some issues to take care of at home, and then my network temporarily crashed, but I'm back! Thanks for your patience.

Please, again, comment. Roy Mustang's job is to make flames, so don't try to usurp him ;-)

I do NOT under any circumstances own anything that even resembles anything from Kung Fu Panda. Likewise, I am the owner of anything/one unrecognizable. If you would like to use anyone/thing, PLEASE let me know first. :-)

All right. Enjoy chapter two!

Chapter Two:

"Look at me Po! Look at me!"

"I'm a warrior! Hiya!"

"That's great bunnies!" The enthusiastic panda exclaimed to his students. "You look totally awesome!"

Tigress glanced over from her form practice and paused to watch Po with the village children. She had to hand it to the panda; he worked well with the kids. They looked up to him, idolized him, and_ worshiped_ him. She didn't have that kind of touch. At this thought, the blood rose to her face, though she didn't know exactly why. She'd never felt emotions like this until that panda had showed up in the Jade Palace, but now that she felt them, they were strong and overwhelming at times…especially when…

"How are you doing, panda? Not causing any major concussions, contusions, or lacerations this early in the morning, are you?"

"Not yet, Master Shifu. It's not even midday yet."

"Oh, ho, ho," Shifu chuckled, "Is that right? Then maybe we should spar this afternoon…just you and me."

"You and me?"

"Well, of course, you don't _have_ to. You know what they say, 'if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen'," Shifu smirked.

It was Po's turn to laugh good-naturedly. "Hey, that's my line! I'm the cook around here, and trust me Shifu, you've no idea what a _hot_ kitchen is like!"

Shooting the panda a quizzical look, Master Shifu shot back, "No, and I'm sure, no, _positive_ that I don't want to."

Po laughed back, and Shifu cracked an amused smile. They were growing more and more tolerant, and fond, of each other as time went by.

That's when she felt it the most: whenever Po was around Master Shifu. Tigress noted that her palms were starting to get sweaty and her face felt hot. But what's more, she had a burning feeling in her heart that she couldn't describe. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, and it made her sick.

_What was this feeling? And why had she never, ever felt it before?_

"Hey, Tigress! What are you doing in your own little happy place over there? Thinking about your new man?"

Turning her mind away from these tangled thoughts, her sarcastic sense of humor returned. "Ha, ha. Funny, Monkey. That's a _really _good one."

"Oh, come _on_ Tigress." Viper coaxed. "There must be someone! You've been out of sorts for a long time, and it's got to be a man! Who is he?"

Scoffing at Viper, Tigress snapped back, "There is _no_ guy!" Well, that wasn't entirely true. There were guys at the middle of this, but it wasn't how romantic Viper was fantasizing. Tigress had never had crushes on anyone like Viper did. Somehow, those silly little schoolgirl romances had never appealed to her. Plus, they took up so much time and attention, as did Kung Fu. As she couldn't give devotion to both, it had been a choice: boys, make-up, and play…or Kung Fu.

Obviously, she had chosen the latter. And, thus far, she had never regretted it.

"Well, I guess that's a good thing." Crane swooped in to add his two cents worth to the conversation. "You know what Shifu says about love." There was an immediate snicker that ran through the companions. If there was anyone who had more disdain for "romantic attachments" than Tigress, it was Master Shifu. He had taught his students for a long time that they were better than that, and that falling in love would simply be a waste of their time and talents. They didn't need love. It was a want, not a necessity.

Slipping into a deep voice, Monkey impersonated Shifu's strong, commanding tone and mimicked, "Love is like alcohol. It feels good at the time, but it distracts from what's truly important and in the end will have lasting repercussions!"

She knew that Crane and Monkey were trying to make a joke with her about Shifu's strict nature, but those words had never stung like that. They had always made sense before, but now something about them just seemed…wrong.

What _**was **_she thinking? Was she crazy? She had never questioned Shifu's words before. This mental state and that weird feeling from earlier were so, well, weird. This wasn't like her **at all. **Maybe Viper was right! Maybe she was out of sorts, disoriented by the new absence of Master Oogway and the arrival of Po, his battle with Tai Lung, and his title as the "Dragon Warrior", and that's what was leading her to think and act so strangely! That had to be it! She just had to get used to the way things were, and everything would go back to normal…hopefully.

"Well," she smirked proudly, "then I guess I'll have nothing to worry about. One, I've never even touched alcohol in my life," here Crane and Mantis, who were standing by quietly observing the conversation, raised an eyebrow and her, which she answered with a glare so sharp that they had to look away.

She continued, "And two, if there's one thing I'm sure of…it's that I'll never fall in love."


	3. Chapter 3

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Please don't kill me. School's a killer. Add all my other "life drama" and you get a massacre. But hey, I'm updating it, aren't I?

Once again, I don't own it. If I did, I would be a rich person and I wouldn't be on here…but I'm not, so I'll have to stick to being a humble fan fic writer for now.

No flames. Me likey comments!

BTW-Pay close attention to character interactions for me…later on I'm going to have a question for all of you because, well, you'll see when we get there.

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Chapter Three:

When Tai Lung woke up, it hurt. He was sure that he was dead and in hell. That's where you go if you disrespect your elders and, well…Tai Lung was sure he'd gone _way_ beyond disrespect.

His vision started to clear and he looked about, expecting to see some dark hole with lots of fire and things out of worst nightmares. What he saw instead were the walls of a small room. The roof was thatched and the door was a humble sliding screen. The room was pretty much empty, except for the pallet he was laying on and a bowl sitting in the corner along with some herbs and things.

Confused, he realized he must still be alive. Even though he wasn't in hell, his back still felt like it was on fire. Reaching back to touch it, he realized that his whole back was bandaged tightly and that there was something squishy beneath the bandages. _That must be the outcome of the Wu Xi finger hold,_ he thought. He noticed that the wounds he had incurred during the fight with Shifu, his escape from Chor Ghom, and…uh…everything else that had happened in that hole in the ground had been treated as well. What was going on here?

He didn't have time to philosophically muse over the question, because the screen slid open at that moment. Tai Lung strained his eyes as a figure entered the room. It took a few moments before his eyes focused. It, well _she_, was a tigress. Younger than him, he could tell that. She wasn't elegantly dressed, but her clothing was far from shabby. She had green eyes that twinkled with…_sympathy_.

_Great, _Tai Lung thought. _Just great! More stupid sympathy acts! _If there was one thing Tai Lung hated, it was pity. It made you feel like you had done something wrong. Well he, Tai Lung, didn't regret _anything_ he had done…Shifu and the panda be cursed. And he _certainly_ didn't want anything from this girl.

"Well," she smiled cheerfully, "you're finally up!"

Tai Lung grunted in response, hoping she would get the hint.

"Oh, I see. You're one of the quiet, brooding types."

_What? What nonsense was she spouting?_

"It's okay. I'm used to talking to walls. They can be such pleasurable company." She winked at him.

It was only then that he realized it. This girl was _mocking _him? Playing around with him? He turned and glared at her.

She simply smiled. "Well, you'd better roll over. I need to change your poultice."

Tai Lung raised an eyebrow. The girl caught on. "Oh, a poultice? It's a mixture of herbs that helps heal wounds faster. It also takes the sting away."

Well, Tai Lung couldn't argue with that. He rolled over onto his stomach. He could feel the girl gently unwinding his bandages. When they were off, she took a wet sponge and washed away the sticky goo…er, poultice from his back. His wounds, now exposed, dug into his back and he hissed in pain.

"I know. I'm sorry. When we found you, all the skin on your back was burnt off. We're doing all we can."

She washed the wounds; he could tell that she was trying to be as gentle as possible. He wasn't trying to be ungrateful…he just didn't like accepting charity.

She put some more of the cool poultice back on, and re-wrapped his wounds. When she was done, she made a sighing sound in her throat that Tai Lung took to mean he could roll back over, so he did.

He looked up at the young woman. She had such a kind face…he hadn't seen one of those in over twenty years. Maybe he was dead, and the spirits had made some sort of mistake and sent him to heaven.

"My name's Jin Hua. What's yours?"

Tai Lung looked away from her, reluctant to give her his identity.

He couldn't tell if Jin Hua could read his body language, or if she thought he was just being sarcastic with her. "Okay, then. Until I can call you something else, I'll just call you Wu Ming. If you need anything, my sister and I can get it for you." It almost looked like she was about to say something else, but instead she walked out of the door and slid the screen back into place.

_Wu Ming. 'Nameless One'. _Tai Lung almost preferred that title. It gave him the certain amount of anonymity that he required. Once he was well, he would bust out of here and…

…and what? What would he do? Go back to the Valley? Burn it to the ground? Kill Shifu and the fat panda?

Then what?

He really hadn't thought that far ahead. Revenge was a matter of past and present. The future rarely had anything to do with it of all.

Then what?

The door slid open again. This time, it was not Jin Hua. Tai Lung's eyes widened in surprise.

A snow leopard! He had never seen one of his own kind before. But there she was, a female snow leopard striding masterfully across the floor, setting some food down beside him.

Unlike his previous visitor, this girl didn't say a word. She was not kind or witty. She shot him a glare that read, "If I could, I would kill you". He had seen that look too many times to mistake it.


	4. Chapter 4

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Greetings, earthlings. Thank you so much for all your kind reviews so far :-) Sorry for the delay (I could pull a Brian Regan line here, but I'll decline). Here's the update.

Um…don't arrest me. I'm not selling this, I pinky-swear, virtually. I only own Jin Hua, Di Guang, and anyone else you did not see in DreamWorks's Kung Fu Panda.

I'll send Sesshomaru after you if I see any flames. If I get good reviews though, with constructive criticism, I will send Shippo to give you a cookie (Inuyasha's chips are 'off-limits'). Inuyasha fans will know what I'm talking about ;-)

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Chapter Four:

"Hu…hu…hu" Po huffed. "That was…AWESOME!"

"Yep." Smirked Shifu. "That was a nice warm-up."

"Yeah," Po replied, wiping the sweat off his brow. Then he realized what Shifu had just said. "Wait…what? Warm-up?"

The smirk got bigger. "Yes. Warm-up. Did you _really_ think that that was an _actual _sparring match?"

Po sighed, rubbing his back. Shifu had certainly beat him up like it was an _actual_ sparring match.

Suddenly, the doors creaked open. Shifu arched his neck around Po to see Tigress walk through the doors with two buckets completely filled _to the brim_ with water.

"Here," smiled Tigress, setting the buckets down near the pair. "Thought you guys might need these for your 'sparring'."

Tigress was getting used to Po being at the palace. She knew that when he was around, they needed to take extra precautions so that he wouldn't hurt too badly. Shifu was almost thankful for the water, not for Po, but for himself. It was a scorching day outside, and even he was starting to break a sweat from the intense heat. "Thank you Tigress. You read my mind."

Tigress smiled faintly, although Shifu didn't miss the pained look in her eyes. He was about to ask her about it when the voices of the Furious Five rang through the air, "Tigress!"

Giving Shifu a quick, over-the-shoulder glance, Tigress turned around and set off to find her companions.

Shifu was making a mental note to ask Tigress about 'that' look later, when he turned around and saw Po staring after Tigress. Suddenly, his protective instinct kicked in and he started glaring the panda down.

When Po finally zoned back in, he looked over at Shifu to see what the master had lined up next for him and met a ferocious glare, combined with a raised eyebrow. _Uh, oh_. He knew he was in trouble now. "What?"

"I saw that."

"Saw what?"

Shifu gave Po the 'you know exactly what I'm talking about' look and Po started planning out his eulogy, though if he died there really wouldn't be anyone to give it.

"Don't you _dare_ tell me that you…are…'hitting' on my student." Shifu growled low in his throat, struggling to keep his composure as he spit out a word that he only could have learned from Viper.

"Me? What? No! It's just that…she's strong, and smart, and…"

"Beautiful?"

"Exactly! She's…" Po then realized that he had played _right_ into Shifu's hand. "No! No, no. That's not what I meant!"

"Then what exactly _did_ you mean?"

"Um, well…" Po was trying, flustered, to come up with something to get himself out of this situation. Problem: nothing was coming to mind. He knew that Shifu was shielding when it came to his students and _especially_ protective of Tigress. Po couldn't blame him, really. Shifu had raised Tigress from a little girl. She'd almost never been out of his sight since he had taken her in and she was _never_ far from his thoughts.

Was Master Shifu…threatened by Po's attention towards Tigress? By _anyone's _attention towards Tigress? Po had even seen Shifu react when once or twice Monkey had gotten a 'little too close' to Tigress. Shifu's boundaries for his adoptive daughter were, strict…to say the least. _That's not very fair, _Po thought to himself. _Tigress is an adult now. Doesn't she get some say in all of this?_

Seeing that Po was at a loss for an explanation of his "unseemly" behavior, Shifu's glare softened, replaced by his 'dead serious' look. He knew that Po was more scared of that look than of his angry look. "Well then, let me give you a piece of advice…from one panda to another." Po was about to make some crack about how red pandas weren't really pandas, but the look on Shifu's face stopped him.

Shifu continued. "Relationships between species never work out, especially when you choose to admire someone _way_ out of your league and social status. My advice to you is to quit before you get untangled in something that you can never even hope to control. They say that opposites attract, but in reality, different people are like oil and water. They might sit on top of each other, but they will never, **ever** mix!"

Po saw that Master Shifu's color was rising and attempted to smooth the situation out. "Okay, okay. I understand. So…sparring match?"

Turning away gruffly, Shifu muttered, "Not today. Go find something useful to do."

Discouraged, Po turned and "ran" (hypothetically) away from the upset Kung Fu master. What could he have possibly done to make Shifu this angry? He'd given eyes to Tigress before, and Shifu had gotten defensive before, but he'd never seen the red panda like this before. What had he said or done differently this time that could have set Shifu off this way?

Po then remembered something that Master Shifu had said:

_"Relationships between species __never__ work out, especially when you choose to admire someone way out of your league and social status."_

Po suddenly began to have a buildup of curiosity about Master Shifu's personal life. Shifu was like a stone wall when it came to talking about his past. Once or twice he had grunted a couple of one-word answers about his family or his home, but for the most part, you would have thought that Shifu's life had started with training the Furious Five (notice, _he_ was a forbidden subject right now…even more so now than before). For the first time, Po started to consider that perhaps Shifu had been in a relationship…and a potentially interesting one at that.

_Weird._ With the exception of Tigress and Viper, Po had never even _seen_ Master Shifu around a member of the opposite sex. Could Shifu really have had an…attachment (as Viper would call it)? Po shook that crazy question away. Of course Master Shifu could have been in love! Anyone could! Love was something universal.

Po was now extraordinarily engrossed with this revelation. Now the only questions were 1. who was she? and 2. what had happened?

The moment Shifu had started walking back to the Reflection Chamber, he had begun to feel guilty for loosing so much venom on Po. The panda had simply irritated him in the wrong way at the wrong time.

Shifu cursed to himself, something he had tried to avoid doing lately. _What did it matter? _He knew that when he got angry enough, he would still swear anyway. He thought he'd gotten over…that a long time ago. He'd stopped thinking about…

By the gods, who was he trying to fool? That subject had always been at the back of his mind, no matter how many times he'd tried to push it away or submerge it.

He cursed again, loudly this time. He felt a bit in the wrong when his unsuitable words echoed through the holy room, but he couldn't help it.

Once again, he was allowing his emotions to control him. Had he learned _nothing_ from Master Oogway's lessons?

Apparently not. Even with all that work and effort and time, Shifu was still as passionate and hotheaded as ever. Would things have been different if he had kept his emotions in check? He knew it was too late to ever know.

Growling low, he let out a furious cry and pounded his fists into the marble floors, adding yet another dent to the already cracked stone.


	5. Chapter 5

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Yeah, I'm a bad girl for not updating. You try keeping up when you have 18 stories to look after and your best friend wanting you to write the next chapter of your future novel.

JK ;) I'm lazy, and I know it.

Well, here goes Chapter Five. Hope you enjoy it! Please review!

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Chapter Five:

Tai Lung was in an eye lock of death with this mysterious female snow leopard. She was glaring him down like he was a criminal.

Well, he was. But she couldn't possibly know that…could she? Had she heard stories of some psychopath snow leopard on the loose? But then again, everyone probably thought he was dead, so what did she have against him? Well, she might as well pick the bone and get over with it. He was starting to sweat under her icy stare.

Instead of talking, however, the girl simply pushed the tray of food at him, indicating that she wanted him to eat.

Wanting to break the highly uncomfortable silence, Tai Lung muttered a muted, "Ni hao."

Not answering, the girl dropped her eyes to the floor. Seeing that trying to strike up a conversation was useless, Tai Lung instead picked up a piece of the food from the tray. Without looking like he was doing it on purpose, he poked around the food a little looking for any niches that this silent, sadistic girl might have made for poison. Not seeing anything, and willing to eat _anything_, even if it was poisoned, Tai Lung started to gulp down everything on the tray.

Remembering the silent girl, he turned to her, mouth coated with crumbs, and said, "It's good."

She blinked once, and then stood up and stormed out indignantly.

_What's wrong with _her? He wondered. Looking at the rest of the food on the tray, he suddenly lost his appetite. First that crazy, happy girl, and now this crazy, creepy girl! He needed to get out of here…and fast!

He stood up, and immediately, all the blood drained from his head. Tai Lung had to reach over and balance on the thin walls to regain his balance…or whatever was left of it. Walking as quietly as he could, he slid the door open and started to make a run for it down the narrow hallway. He could see the door at the end of the hall, and started dashing for it. He was almost there, when a door opened.

It was that happy girl…Jin Hua. He was impressed at himself for remembering her name. She was carrying several clean towels, and might have dropped them at her surprise at seeing him.

"What is it?" she inquired, a worried look on her face. "Can I get you anything?"

"Yeah…you can get me out of here." He was aware that he sounded ungrateful and incensed, but he couldn't take any more of this.

Instead of complying, Jin Hua simply smiled. "You're just tired…and still a little hurt. Let's go back to your room. Maybe you're hungry? I thought I sent my sister to get you some lunch."

"Well, I did get lunch…but it was from this reticent girl who refused to talk to me or even acknowledge that I existed."

Jin Hua blinked a few times in shock before bursting out into giggles. "Y-yes! That's my sister…Di Guang."

"Your sister?" Tai Lung was confused now. Jin Hua was a tigress and this other girl…Di Guang…was a snow leopard like him. How could they possibly be sisters?

Jin Hua, seeing his confusion, aided him. "Di Guang was adopted by my mother. My mother considered Di to be her own child…and we've been sisters ever since."

"Hmph. I don't see much of a resemblance," Tai Lung said, in reference to Di Guang's rude behavior.

Laughing again, Jin Hua said, "Don't take it personally. If Di Guang could talk, I'm sure she would have had plenty to say to you. In fact, you should probably be glad that she couldn't have."

"Wait…she can't…"

Jin Hua shook her head sadly. "Di has been mute for many years. She has figured out how to talk to others with her hands. I could teach you…if you'd like to talk to her."

Sniffing, Tai Lung replied, "No, thanks."

Jin Hua smiled a knowing smile. "Very well. But the offer will always be good, you know."

Tai Lung was about to express that he was getting out of this freak house as soon as he could, when his legs started to fail him. Jin Hua caught him before they completely gave out. "Let's go back to the room. You need more rest to get your strength back."

Tai Lung was in no condition to complain or argue with the young woman. And so, he let her lead him back to his room.

Jin Hua gently closed the door to "Wu Ming's" room. She felt Di Guang's presence before she even turned around and saw her sister. Once, Di Gung's ability to sneak up behind her undetected might have frightened her, but she'd grown accustomed to it.

Glaring at Wu Ming's door, Di Guang started to talk to her sister, using their secret hand language. _I don't trust _–she pointed to Wu Ming's room to emphasize who she was referring to.

"Wu Ming? What's not to trust about him?"

_Well, for one thing…the fact that we have to call him "Wu Ming". If he were trustworthy, he would have told us his name. Secondly, no one with injuries that brutal could be up to anything good. He's a trouble-maker, and the sooner we're rid of him, the better._

Placing a hand on her sister's shoulder as they walked down the hallway, Jin Hua asked, "What would you have me do, Di? Throw him out of the house?"

_That would be the only wise thing._

Jin Hua was shocked at her sister's words. "Di Guang! You know that he wouldn't last an hour on the street in a condition like that! Is that what mother would have done? Tossed him out onto the street and let him die when he needs our help?"

Di Guang's face went pale. Their mother may not have had the best resources, but she had always gone out of her way to take care of those that needed her help. After a moment of contemplative silence, Di Guang responded. _Fine. You win. He can stay here until his wounds heal. But if we come to regret this, you'd better remember that it was all _your _idea!_


	6. Chapter 6

I've been so excited to write this installment, so here it is!

Thanks for all the support…and keep those reviews coming!

Jin Hua y Di Guang son MIYOS!!! Everyone else is DreamWorks's.

Um…that's it I guess. So, read and have fun!

Chapter Six:

"WHAT?" Crane exclaimed.

"You think that Master Shifu had a secret love life?" Mantis added, a little incredulously.

The Furious Five and Po were sitting in a circle around the training yard. Po had just shared his newfound revelation about Shifu with the five, and everybody had their two cents to put in about Po's discovery.

"What's so unbelievable about Master Shifu being in love?" asked Viper, ever the romantic. "Maybe he had a tragic romance a long time ago."

"Come on!" exclaimed Mantis. "This is _Shifu_ we're talking about."

"Yeah," added Monkey. "Mr. Apathy himself." The rest of the group nodded. It wasn't that they thought that Master Shifu was incredibly heartless…but it wasn't Shifu's nature to be the soft, fuzzy, loving type.

"Don't chew me up!" Po exclaimed. "I'm just telling you what I heard!"

Tigress blew out a disinterested breath. "Well, it's useless to take stabs in the dark about the translation of Shifu's comments, and he's not going to tell us. We might as well just leave it alone."

The group looked over at Crane almost in unison. Crane was usually the voice of reason, and he'd been quiet since his one comment earlier. Crane, feeling everyone's eyes on him, cleared his throat and said, "Well, we're not going to find out anything about Master Shifu's past if we just sit here. If we want to learn _anything_, I say we go and find it out for ourselves."

There was a moment of silence, before everyone in the group loudly exclaimed over each other at the same time, each with a different viewpoint:

"Have you gone absolutely insane?!"

"Master Shifu would _obliterate _us!"

"Come on guys! If we don't investigate for ourselves, we'll never know!"

"I don't know about this…I'm a bit iffy."

Tigress was the last to share her feelings…and _everyone_ stopped to listen. "Invading Shifu's privacy and exploiting personal articles that could lay his past bare before our eyes is a taboo that I am _not_ willing to break as his student, and I will kill anyone in this palace who even thinks about trying something so monumentally audacious!"

Po, Monkey, Crane, Viper, and Mantis all looked at each other and shared the same knowing smiles and smirks, and all started running as fast as they could towards the Living Quarters.

It took Tigress a minute to realize what they were doing, before she started chasing after them all at high speed, cursing loudly and screaming, "I'm going to **kill all of you!**"

Her five pursuees took off at the speed of lightning, not taking Tigress's threat lightly. If they wanted to live, they knew that they had to outrun Tigress to Shifu's room and take a sporting chance that perhaps 'curiosity would kill the cat'. They also had to hurry before Shifu got back from the village. They might have a chance of avoiding getting massacred by Tigress…but Shifu was an entirely different story.

Flying rapidly to the doors, Crane flung them open and the rest of the five and Po followed quickly behind them. Monkey, Viper, and Mantis glided across the wooden floors to Shifu's door. Po, not the most graceful sort, slid off balance into the wall at the end of the hall.

Viper looked back at him, and then at Mantis and Monkey with a questioning look that seemed to say, _Should we go back for him?_

Monkey looked like he was considering it for a moment, but when he heard Tigress rampaging close behind, he changed his mind. "Forget it."

"Yeah," iterated Mantis. "It's every man for himself."

"Hey, guys! In here!" Crane whispered urgently. Viper and the two other guys followed Crane's voice into Master Shifu's room, leaving Po outside to deal with the outraged Tigress.

Once in Shifu's room, the four looked around for something…_anything._ Shifu's room was pristine and totally straight. The sheets on his bed were pulled so tight that they looked like a wooden board instead of fabric.

"Come on, guys!" said Mantis. "Let's split up and look!"

And so, the four friends went to work. Crane took Shifu's writing desk. Viper sorted through his clothing chest. Monkey checked all the nooks and crannies, and Mantis poked around in Master Shifu's sleeping pallet in case their master had slipped some important papers or something inside the pallet.

By the time a very frazzled and angry Tigress and a very beat-up Po joined them, they had exhausted their search.

"Ha!" Tigress exclaimed. "So after all that, there wasn't anything in here after all!"

"Nah. There's got to be something in here." Po said. "You've just got to know where to…"

_Crack_

"Po!" exclaimed Viper. "What _have_ you done?"

"Great!" screeched Tigress. "Fantastic! First you invade Shifu's room, and _then_ you make a _huge_ hole in his floor! Nice job guys! How do you think we're going to talk ourselves out of _this?!_"

"Calm down Tigress." Monkey suggested. "Shouting isn't going to make this any better. It can't be that hard to fix, if we all just…"

"Hey, um, guys!" Everyone turned at the sound of Viper's voice. "I hate to ruin this special moment, but Po didn't break anything. It's a loose board. It's Master Shifu's secret hiding place!"

That immediately got everyone's attention…even the disapproving Tigress. Sure enough, Po had been the only one…um…properly equipped to find Shifu's hiding place. The six comrades knelt down next to it, wondering what to do next.

"So…" said Crane. "Who's going to do the honors?"

"Not me!" said Po. "I discovered it. Someone else has to do some dirty work!"

Before the others could begin to argue about whose misfortune it would be to reach down into the hiding place, Tigress, frustrated, huffed out, "_I'll_ do it! Out of the way!" She didn't have to say it twice. Moving out of the way, they allowed Tigress to reach down into the hole and grab out…

"What is it?" whispered Viper excitedly as the dusty object was brought to light.

Tigress unrolled the object and set it on the floor for everyone's inspection. "A painting?" Monkey queried.

"Wow. It's beautiful," said Crane. Indeed, it was beautiful. The painting depicted a large open field, with a few scattered trees and a lovely azure-blue rice patty in the foreground. Over the patty flew two brightly colored kingfishers, swooping gracefully over the water in a pattern that looked almost like a dance. Twilight was settling in, and fireflies twinkled in the darkness around the rice patty.

"Ooh!" exclaimed Viper. "Two kingfishers! The symbols of true unity and love!"

"Oh, please!" answered Tigress. "Just because there are kingfishers in the painting doesn't mean that the painting has some sort of romantic symbolism!"

"Well," said Crane. "As a fellow artist, it doesn't necessarily mean anything…but we can't rule out the possibility that these kingfishers could mean something." Tigress answered that remark by rolling her eyes cynically.

"I say," interjected Mantis, "that we find this place in the painting or someone who knows where it is and ask."

"Are you kidding?" shrieked Tigress. "This rice patty could be halfway across China for all we know!"

"It could be," chuckled Po, "but it's actually right here in the Valley."

His five companions turned to stare at him incredulously. "Well, _sorry_ for actually having a life!" Po exclaimed. "This rice patty is just outside the Valley. There's this…uh, strange old guy who's lived there for years. I bet he would know why Master Shifu has a picture of this place!"

Tigress gave out a gruff, frustrated sigh, and said, "Oh brother. He we go again!"

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About twenty minutes later, the group stood in front of a small house outside the picturesque forest and paddy depicted in the painting.

Crane fidgeted quietly before saying, "I'd feel better if this guy knew we were coming."

"Yeah," snickered Tigress, "like we should have sent him a messenger bird or something."

"Just cool down, guys. He might be a little gruff, but he's not hiding behind the door waiting to shoot us all down." Po reached out and knocked on the screen.

There was silence. Po reached out and knocked again. Finally, the screen slid aside. An old badger stepped into the sunlight.

"What do you want?"

Po smiled. "How are you, Elder? My friends and I have come to ask you a question."

"I don't know where the armies went. They took rice and ran."

Viper and Monkey's eyes widened as they stared at each other. The war that had come through the valley of peace had taken place almost fifty years ago.

"It's not about that, Elder." Po reached behind him, pulling the painting into the fading light. "Have you ever seen this painting before?"

Reaching out and looking hazily at the painting, the old man's eyes widened in shock and fear. "Get out. You won't find them here."

"Won't find who here?" Po asked.

"Get out!" The old man yelled. "You won't find them here! She's gone away. He'll never come back here."

That statement caught Tigress's attention. "Who's _she_?"

"She's gone! She's gone away. She will never return. And so, he will **never** come back to this place!"


End file.
